Telangana leaders insist on a separate State

HYDERABAD - Cutting across party lines, various political leaders supporting the creation of separate state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday voiced their demand here.

The leaders, most of them members of the Andhra State Assembly, alleged that people from other regions of Andhra Pradesh are robbing all the resources by leaving Telangana high and dry.

Yadava Reddy, a Member of the legislative council, said that the Telangana region was being robbed to the hilt by the vested interests from the coastal Andhra Pradesh.

“”Due to the powerful Andhra regime, all the resources of the Telangana region are being looted by high level Andhra Pradesh businessmen and politicians. In fact everybody is robbing of the region of its resources. That is why we cannot stay united and we want a separate state,” said Yadava Reddy.

He also said that all the pro-Telangana leaders from the Congress party have submitted a detailed memorandum to the Justice Srikrishna Committee, constituted by the Central government to review the issue of a new State.

“The leaders of Andhra have capitalised on all the resources of the region. As this had been happening since a very long time, we, the new generation, the educated class, cannot take this exploitation any more. Thus, we are now fighting again and again for a separate Telangana state,” said Bhanu Prasad, another legislator of Andhra Pradesh.

Prasad also alleged that out of the 1.89 billion rupees given to the State government through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), only 90 million rupees were allocated to the Telangana region, showing a vast disparity.

The Central government constituted the Justice Srikrishna Committee on February 3, nearly two months after it had announced that steps have been initiated for the formation of a separate state of Telangana.

Pro-Telangana activists have been agitating since December 23, after the federal government deferred its promise to initiate the process for bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.

The agitation has witnessed series of violent incidents in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, as well as some other parts of the State.

The Telangana region is spread over 10 districts in the northwest region of the present Andhra Pradesh.

Political analysts feel that the creation of the new state of Telangana may fuel social unrest and separatist demands in other States. (ANI)